Spoiler Warning:
The rest of this article contains significant spoilers for Tears of the Kingdom about the story, gameplay mechanics, etc. that you might not wish to see. Continue reading at your own risk.
On October 9, Zelda developers Eiji Aonuma and Hidemaro Fujibayashi divulged more information about making Tears of the Kingdom in a rare interview with The Telegraph. They also reflected on what it was like developing Breath of the Wild and its world compared to Zelda titles in the past, how that affected making its sequel Tears of the Kingdom, and what it could mean for the future of the series moving forward.
Of course, they also dropped a few curious details about the duology titles, much to the bewilderment of fans.
One such detail was Fujibayashi’s explanation why the Sheikah Towers and Guardians from Breath of the Wild are absent in Tears of the Kingdom:
“They disappeared after the Calamity was defeated (sealed). All of the people of Hyrule also witnessed this, but there is no one who knows the mechanism or reason why they disappeared, and it is considered a mystery. It is believed that since the Calamity disappeared, they also disappeared as their role had been fulfilled.
It is, anyway, commonplace for mysterious events and strange phenomena to occur in Hyrule. Thus, people have simply assumed the reason behind the disappearance to likely be related to ancient Sheikah technology and it seems there is on one who has tried to explore the matter further. The main civilizations in Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom are completely different, so we thought about the game based on concepts that match each of these civilizations.”
Hidemaro Fujibayashi, Director of Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom
According to Fujibayashi, the world of Tears of the Kingdom is still filled to the brim with secrets, and he wasn’t shy to share one more with the fans as an appetizer. “I don’t think this is known yet, but if you hold up a Cucco and go near a Yiga in disguise, the Cucco makes a fuss, and you can see through the Yiga’s disguise.” Even Fujibayashi couldn’t stifle a laugh.
Having been on the Zelda team since the development of Ocarina of Time, Eiji Aonuma shared that creating a Zelda title where players “could make their own experiences” was an idea he had wanted to implement, but the technology was simply unavailable at the time. “In the games in the series before Breath of the Wild, it was difficult to create a huge seamless world without any load time. Each time you would leave or enter one [area], the data would be loaded. Even if our intention had been to create a huge world, there were impassable walls at the edges.” Interestingly, Aonuma described Hyrule in the past as “simply a giant dungeon without a roof where the lines of movement were fixed.”
In short, Breath of the Wild finally took the limits off, but Tears of the Kingdom punched the throttle. Aonuma revealed that the idea where “people could play in a world, after having completed a game in that same world” had been his dream for a long time. This idea finally became a reality through the birth of Tears of the Kingdom, when the team was working on DLC content for Breath of the Wild:
“When we made the DLC for Breath of the Wild, it made me feel that this world still has a lot of potential for new gameplay. I talked with Mr. Fujibayashi about it and he was also thinking about gameplay using the same world as the last game as a base, so we decided to make a sequel set in the same world. Of course, that also presented challenges in terms of making sure it’s not repetitive or feeling like you’ve seen it before.”
Eiji Aonuma, Producer of Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom
That was certainly no small feat to deliver after Breath of the Wild’s sweeping commercial success. “Providing new experiences to people who played Breath of the Wild was one of the challenges we identified when we started making Tears of the Kingdom,” added Fujibayashi. But as history soon proved, the team overcame the challenge with the brilliant concept of Link’s Ultrahand building mechanic. “As we progressed in the development, we noticed that this gameplay was actually more fun in places and areas you know well, rather than in a place that is brand new,” he explained. Additions of caves, the sky, and the Depths were also designed with the intention to evoke different emotions from the player, from exhilaration to wonder and everything in between.
As for whether or not Tears of the Kingdom will receive DLC, Aonuma reiterated that the game feels complete and it is not planned at this time. “When making Tears of the Kingdom, we were able to implement all of the ideas we had on the development side. I think lots of players will have already completed the main game, but we aren’t creating any DLC at this time. We as the development team are hoping you will continue to enjoy this huge land of Hyrule.” You can read the interview in full detail on The Telegraph’s website with a paid subscription.
